Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #3 of Genesis, chapter 15 and we are going to be reading Genesis 15:1-3:

After these things the word of JEHOVAH came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord JEHOVAH, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.

We have been talking about God’s statement to Abram, “Fear not.” We saw in our last study that this was the same thing God said to Jacob at the time when Jacob was about to leave the land of Canaan to enter the land of Egypt during that terrible famine that typified the Great Tribulation period.

The Great Tribulation was a time when God began to open up the Scriptures that had been sealed or kept secret, the hidden things of the Word of God, the Bible.

I want to go to one more passage to look at another time that God issued the command, “Fear not,” and the context in which it is used in Matthew 10:19:

But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.

The “hour” is a spiritual reference to the Great Tribulation. It is typified as an “hour.” Again, it was during the Great Tribulation that God opened up His Word to the understanding of His people and brought forth information that had previously been sealed. That is why it goes on to say in Matthew 10:20:

For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.

That is, God opened the information in the Bible and the people of God discover it through the process of comparing Scripture with Scripture (or spiritual things with spiritual things) and then we speak of what we learned. God is not breaking the barrier of the supernatural – He has bound Himself not to do so, once the Bible was completed. Therefore, He uses His people to proclaim or speak forth His Word, but because it is information that was realized through comparing spiritual things with spiritual, the Holy Ghost teaches, as it says in 1Corinthians, chapter 2. The Holy Ghost teaches us what to speak, so this passage in Matthew, chapter 10 has everything to do with the Lord revealing truth to His people at the time of the end as it was prophesied in Daniel 12, verse 4: “…shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”

Let us go on in Matthew 10:21-22:

And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

We can find very similar language in Matthew 24, which is a chapter that addresses the Great Tribulation. So, we are on very safe ground to understand that what is being said in Matthew 10 relates to Matthew 24 or Luke 21. Then it says in Matthew 10:23-25:

But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?

Here, we see the reproach of men and the revilings that we can expect. If they did it to the Lord Jesus Christ (eternal God in the flesh) and called him Beelzebub and of Satan, what do you think will happen to His lowly servants? They will have no problem speaking evil of us. This is the point God is making as He is preparing the mindset of His people for the time when judgment would begin at the house of God. Remember, we looked at 1Peter, chapter 4 and the context of being reproached for the name of Christ and then it led right up to verse 17 where it said that judgment must begin at the house of God.

It is the same situation here. It is the preparation of the people of God and we should have expected it. It goes on to say in Matthew 10:26-27:

Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.

You see, once again, God is saying to fear not the reproach of men or their revilings. What God reveals and makes known in the Scriptures as He opens them, we are to teach it, preach it and proclaim it. We are not to pay the slightest attention or be concerned when people label us and vilify us and cast out our names as “evil.” Of course, they will do this because they did it to the Lord Jesus and they will also do it to us, because we are His servants and we have identification with Him through His Word, the Bible. Therefore, there is tremendous hatred of man against God and they express it in this manner. We are to “fear them not,” and our lack of fear of them will show itself as we proclaim these things. What we hear in the ear, we share on the housetops and we proclaim it far and wide.

Some are intimidated by the “big bad world” or by man. Man is so terrifying and frightening, is he not? At least, that is what they want us to think and it is what Satan wants us to think because he works through unsaved mankind. It is Satan behind it all, as he tries to frighten us in to submission and to back away from our duty and task and to cower in a corner. He wants us to back away and turn back to the world and, if not that, he wants us to at least turn away from a bold declaration of the Word of God to the people around us. Satan does not want that and he uses all the means at his disposal to use unsaved people – even people in our own families – to come after the child of God. This was especially evident in the day of salvation during the second part of the Great Tribulation when the Latter Rain was being poured out to save the great multitude. Satan wanted to maintain control over the captives and he did not want to let the captives go free, as illustrated by Pharaoh when he stubbornly would not let the people go, despite the plagues God brought against him. That is the nature of Satan. He wanted to hold onto his spiritual captives that were captive to their sins and to him, but God delivered His people and commanded us to “fear not” and to proclaim the Word of God and the worldwide proclamation of “May 21, 2011, Judgment Day” to all the inhabitants of the earth. Through this proclamation, God saved the great multitude.

It goes on to say in Matthew 10:28:

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

We are to let Him be our fear and God be our dread. We are to cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils. It cannot be emphasized enough. Cease worrying, fretting and fearing what men think. “What will they think?” A good antidote for this is to pick up the Bible and walk down the street, holding the Bible in your hand. You might feel very awkward and you are going to feel like everyone is staring at you (and many people may be staring). What is it in this world that makes it a “crime” to carry the Word of God in your hand and to walk among men carrying a Bible? Why is that so bad and so atrocious in the eyes of the world? Of course, many people will not say anything, but that is their feeling. Some will say something.

On the other hand, you could walk down the street practically naked today and it is completely acceptable. You can walk down the street with a purple mohawk and that is completely acceptable. You can have piercings all over your body and that is acceptable. There is a long list of things that are completely acceptable to the world and, yet, you walk down the street with a Bible and it is not acceptable. You could walk down the street with any other book and nobody cares, but there is a “sense” about the Bible that other books do not have and, immediately, the wavering eyes of man will begin to label the individual as a “Bible Thumper” or “Holy Roller” because he is carrying the Bible. And, yet, it is the best think in the world. It is the best thing that anyone could become involved with and there is nothing better than this Holy Book, the Bible, so God would have His people to “fear not.” If you are fearful, maybe an exercise like walking around your neighborhood carrying a Bible might be helpful to you. You are making a declaration, “I identify with this Bible and I am not afraid or ashamed of identifying with it.” It goes on to say in Matthew 10:29-31-33:

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

God keeps telling us, “Fear ye not.” We are not to fear man but God, because God is more powerful, glorious and awesome than all the people of the world combined. If you gathered all the people of the nations, they are as a “drop in the bucket” and they are nothing in comparison to the power, ability and might of the Eternal God of the Bible and, therefore, correct and proper fear is due Him. It is a good thing when you give the proper “due” to the One deserving of it and God is deserving of fear – man is not. Man is a corrupt, fallen creature that is very finite and little. What is he to be accounted of? He is not to be accounted of and he is not deserving or worthy of receiving our fear or that we would seek to honor man over God or that we would seek to obey the attitude and will of man over God. That would be indicating that God is not our God, but mankind is our god or idol and we bow toward what man thinks of us instead of what the God of the Bible thinks of us.

Let me read another passage that illustrates this point, in 1Peter 4:1-3:

Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles…

If you do not think it is the will of “men,” here it is stated. That is exactly what we have done for a good portion of our lives when we were part of the world before God saved us – we had done the will of the “Gentiles.” The word “Gentiles” is the same word as “nations” or “heathens.” What is the will of the Gentiles? It goes on to say in 1Peter 4:3:

…when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:

Basically, it is “partying.” It is the philosophy of “eat, drink and be merry!” It is going the way of the world in the pleasures of sin. We are all familiar with it. We know it goes on every day and we know it is the way of the world. But we also know that God has called us out of the world and we are not to live that way any longer. We are not to blindly follow the masses of mankind as they rush headlong down the broad way to destruction. We are to go contrary to the will of the Gentiles or the will of man. When you do so, watch out! That is what is says in the next verse in 1Peter 4:4:

Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:

To “speak evil” is the same word as “blaspheme,” like when they blasphemed Christ and they said He had “Beelzebub.” The other passage told us that we are not to be surprised because if they speak evil of the Lord of the house, how much more so the servants. Unsaved man thinks we are strange and, as a result, they speak evil of us, but what does the Bible say about the “thinking process” that goes on inside that man? Well, the Bible has nothing good to say about man’s thoughts apart from God. They are low and “base” thoughts and they are coming forth from a desperately wicked and deceitful heart. They are in opposition to all that is good and all that is God and His kingdom. In other words, you are not to be concerned with these people.

Would you be concerned if some people on death row that are guilty of the worst sort of crimes thought badly of you or spoke evil of you? No – because you would “consider the source,” and you would consider how they have lived their lives and the things they have done; they are criminals and rebels. I would not give the least thought to what they may think of me. And that is the nature of all fallen mankind. They are desperately wicked and all have come short of the glory of God. All are transgressors, so we do not give any weight to the things they may think about us.

Sometimes what they think is “unspoken,” like rolling the eyes and the look. We are familiar with it because we may have done this kind of thing in our past. It can be expected. It is normal in the spiritual battle between flesh and spirit that will rage on in this world until the world is done.

Then it says in 1Peter 4:5:

Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.

The word “quick” is a word meaning “living” and we know that God is presently judging the elect living and the “dead” living or those that are alive physically, but dead spiritually. All are being judged. It is Judgment Day and that is where we find ourselves now. And it is far past the time to care about the opinions of (unsaved) men toward the child of God. Let me say this again: “Who cares?” Who cares what the world thinks? Who cares what those in the corporate church (that have been bundles as tares for the burning) think? Who cares for their opinion or their condemnation? So, what? It does not mean a thing. It is something, we must admit, but it is a very small thing when we compare the judgment of the world upon the child of God with the judgment of God upon the world. God’s judgment is powerful, weighty and of extreme importance, because He will finally destroy both body and soul in death for evermore and it will be an everlasting destruction.

However, the judgment of man (with their sideways looks and puny words) is nothing. Even if we lived in the time of the Reformation when Christians were seized and judged by a corrupt council and burned at the stake, the worst that can happen is that we died. But when we die, we win. To die is gain. Immediately upon death, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And that is the worst thing they can do to us, by killing our physical bodies that have seen corruption and have the sentence of death within them and are on their way to the grave. But it all must be within the will of God because they cannot do anything to us outside of the will of God.

We have nothing to fear. No wonder God tells us to be fearful of nothing or to “be careful for nothing,” because there is nothing to fear.